In this article I want to ask Business Analysts to consider risk cost calculations when it comes to UI that reduces or removes Tactile Feedback from a user interface.

I like to share examples of User Interfaces that seemed good in the lab but not in reality.

In the book Yeager by General Chuck Yeager / Leo Janos, the pilot Chuck Yeager makes reference to the one time the F16 airplane had a “Fixed Force” sidearm control. Basically a control stick that did not move but relied on the amount of force the user applied to it to determine what the controls would do.

It was not a success as the lack of tactile feedback made it difficult for the user to know how much force they were applying. In his case, they replaced the fixed with a moveable stick that could move about an inch in two directions.

Even then, moving of a stick by itself may not be enough as witnessed by the crash Air France Flight 447 on June 1st 2009. The article link below explains how lack of Tactile feedback may have led to the crash of the flight. In the article it is suggested that since the co pilot could not see or feel what the other pilot was doing (they were using a sidearm control) he was unable in time to rectify the situation.

With the advent of more touch screens devices, we are bringing the lack of tactile feedback to the masses. Certainly we can feel a swipe of the screen but when it comes to pressing something, we have no clue by our touch that the event took place. Even with the swipe, it is possible that the screen was dirty and thus did not register our swipe. In not all cases will it be possible to follow our hand / finger movements with a glance by our eyes thus making the Tactile feedback more critical in those situations. We could add sound to each contact but then that can lead to over abundance of sounds which in themselves become a distraction from the task. Military pilots in various recent wars have complained about having cockpits full of various informational sounds all at one time that if they can turn them off they do. This act of silencing the sounds nullifying the benefit the sound was meant to serve.

While we can see the advantage of the flexibility of the touch screen in that we can change the controls displayed to match the task at hand, the risk of the task needs to be considered. As Business Analysts helping business introduce new technology, we must make sure that the risk of limited or no tactile feedback is calculated against the cost if something goes wrong. This information will help fund the UI/UX department in their quest for the best/affordable UI interface for the situation.